“Tonight I’m feeling in the mood for something else, something…lupine.” Arys let the words hang on the air between us as I tried desperately to swallow the lump in my throat. Kylarai excused herself to the ladies’ room, and I felt my cheeks grow hot with embarrassment.
“Arys, what in the hell was that?” I hissed once she was lost amidst the crowd. “Don’t talk like that in front of Kylarai. It implies something that we aren’t.”
“But should be.”
“What?”
“Don’t deny it, Alexa. You felt it. I know you feel it right now. The way the need pulls you. Your living wolf wants to touch my undead power and run through the world of the dark-,”
“It isn’t real,” I interrupted. I shook my head and downed the last of my drink. I used looking around for the waitress as a distraction. I was afraid to fall into those sapphire eyes.
“It is.” He grabbed my hand, and I felt the urge that raced through my veins like fire. It didn’t force the boundaries of my control, but it was unrelenting in its persistence. “It’s as real as you and me.”
It was. I could feel it under the surface of my being. The rush itself created a longing, and I was starting to learn that our own personal powers went much deeper than the surface.
Arys’s fingers traced light circles in the palm of my hand. A heat wave flowed down my arm, followed by a tingle, the sensation of the energy building. Common sense told me to pull away while everything else screamed for more contact, more power.
“I can’t do this.” I whispered the words, but he heard me. Without replying, he leaned in and before I could react, turned my face to him as he boldly kissed me.
The roar in my ears left me deaf. As he deepened the kiss, a doorway opened for our two differing energies to meld.
He tasted faintly of blood, and I liked it. His fangs pierced my bottom lip, and an exhilarated thrill shot straight to my groin as he ran his tongue over the small wounds. The metal of his lip ring was cool against my tongue as I tasted him.
The power began a steady climb, but finally my rational mind took over. I broke off the kiss as the waitress returned with my drink.
When she’d gone, I turned to Arys. My heart pounded in my ears. “This is dangerous. We’re playing with fire here.”
“Then, let’s extinguish the flame.” Was Arys out of his mind? What was he expecting from me? “Let’s get out of here.”
“No. I’m not leaving right now. I’m going to find Ky, and then I’m going to shoot some pool.” I needed to escape the situation.
The next girl to dance was one of the local Weres that ran with us on occasion. I certainly couldn’t watch this. I used the moment to stand up and gather my things.
“I’m sure you should have enough to keep you entertained.” I filled my hands with my purse and drink so that I couldn’t possibly fulfill the longing to touch him again.
“Not a chance. You haven’t seen the last of me tonight, Alexa.” He leaned close. His breath felt warm against my ear. The heady scent of him tempted me to change my mind. “With a hunger like yours burning, I plan to be around when it burns out of your control, when you need someone to quench it.” With that, he gave me a wink and sauntered back to his table.
I stared after him for a minute. I was hard-pressed not to just drop my things and abandon self-control. I did hunger. I’d attributed it to the moon, combined with natural human and animal instincts. But, this was different. This was a similar need with a different outcome. I wanted to know what that outcome might be, as frightening as it was.
I found Kylarai. She sat at the bar and visited with Shaz. I was suddenly stricken with worry, afraid that Shaz had seen Arys kiss me.
I had no commitments, but I was wary of hurting anyone’s feelings. The smile, which he beamed at me when I walked up, told me that he’d seen nothing. Despite having no commitments, I couldn’t shake the guilty feeling.
The customers never relented, so I didn’t get a chance to speak with him long. Kylarai and I spent the next couple of hours shooting pool and enjoying some of that savory steak that I’d been eagerly anticipating.
In the back of my mind, I kept going back to Arys, to the wonderful way the power breathed over, around and through us. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, which also led me to think about Shaz.
It was different with Shaz, different not only because we both shared the same supernatural power, but also because I feared an emotional attachment with him. I didn’t feel that Arys would ever look at me that way. It was nothing more than a power trip for him, too, with nothing deep-rooted to destroy. I didn’t want to take that chance with Shaz. He’s family.
We’d decided to call it a night around one o’clock. I’d had more than my usual to drink. I got successfully tipsy. I didn’t tell Arys that I was leaving. We’d just left the building and rounded the corner to watch for a taxi. I cursed about having to leave my car.
They came out of the dark. Three men moved to form a partial circle around us. One of them stepped forward to act as ring leader. The stranger stood before me and looked me up and down with a judgmental grimace under a greasy coif of hair. He looked almost forty, too old for stunts like this. He leered down at me and puffed on a cigarette.
“Tell me where to find Raoul Roberts.” He ground his teeth together as he spoke. His eyes were extremely bloodshot, and he looked as if he hadn’t slept in days.
“Who?” I blinked up at him with my best vacant-eyed expression.
“Don’t fuck with me. Somebody told me that you would know where to find him. Raoul Roberts. Where is he?” His fists clenched and unclenched, and I fought the urge to head butt him right in his insipid face.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now if you’ll excuse me-,”
“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me where he lives. He killed my wife, and I’m not going to rest until I take him apart with my own hands. You don’t want to be the only thing preventing that. I don’t have a problem starting with you.”
I said nothing and shouldered my way past him. What I should have done was drop him, right then and there. The slap came out of nowhere, and I tasted blood inside my mouth. I hadn’t anticipated the hit.
Kylarai was in his face before he could blink. I don’t think he even knew it was her that hit him before he was wiping blood from his broken nose.
He stumbled back, but his friends never budged. If things got ugly, I was more than sure we could handle it, but I always preferred to walk away when it came to foolish humans.
The other two guys looked at Kylarai uncertainly. They were second-guessing their choice in confronting us. As I braced myself for a fight, I cursed Raoul inside my head.
Julie Price’s husband stared at Ky dumbfounded before he launched into action. He came at her fast, and I watched his eyes go from enraged to stunned as she easily caught his fist. With an audible crack, she twisted his wrist until he cried out.
“Is there a problem here?” A low, velvety voice came from behind me. The vampire had found me after all.
Price’s two buddies wasted no time in fleeing. I guess they didn’t want to have their faces rearranged by a girl, much less Arys. Price howled his pain but backed away at Arys’s approach.
They fled under the watchful gaze of the vampire. I was amused and annoyed at the same time. I wanted them to be running from me, not Arys.
“Well, I guess we’ll just be getting a cab then,” I said, turning towards the street. Arys grabbed my arm and spun me back to face him. His eyes were serious and seemed to dare me to argue as he touched a hand gently to my stinging cheek.
“Correction. We will walk Kylarai to a cab. You and I have some unfinished business to attend to.”
“You know this perfect timing stuff - riding in to save the helpless damsel in distress - is really getting old.”
“You know I don’t think you’re helpless.”
“Then why the sudden appearance every time
some asshole with his dick in a knot makes trouble for me?”
Silence. He just stared at me with those deep blue orbs.
“Ok, Alexa, I’m out of here,” Kylarai called from twenty feet away where a cab was pulling to a stop near the curb. “You coming with?”
I wanted to say yes and leave with Ky whether Arys liked it or not, but that was only to spite him, not because I didn’t want to stay.
“No. I’m not.” I didn’t take my eyes off of the vampire. A devilish grin slowly spread along his handsome features. “Leave a message on my cell when you get home so I know you made it ok.”
“I’ll see you at home, Alexa. Be careful.” The teasing look in her eyes said she meant the vampire.
When she closed the cab door, I was alone with my whiskey-encouraged, moon-inspired decision and a power-hungry vampire.
Chapter Seven
With Arys, I didn’t have a sole intention in mind. I wasn’t on the prowl for someone to relieve me of moon-related desires, and I wasn’t lonely. What kept me walking beside him went deeper than either of those things: Power.
I declined his offer to get a cab. Instead, I insisted we walk the few blocks to his bachelor bungalow under the wide-open sky. I needed to feel the moon on my skin and the night in my veins.
We walked along a bike path and forced some aimless small talk. Energy shifted keenly between us as we ambled through the warm summer night. I could smell the common town jack rabbits in the empty playground across the street. The town was quiet.
I expected to feel awkward or uncertain as we drew closer to Arys’s house. Instead, anticipation thrilled me, and my inner beast waited eagerly. As a heady glow enveloped me, my senses heightened to a painfully delicious extent. The faint evening breeze encouraged my wolf and called me to run.
I longed to touch Arys, to open that strange door between us. I ached to know what we were playing with. I yearned for a taste of his superhuman power, but the driving force wasn’t really me. This was something bigger than the sum of our power, greater than the two of us combined.
We’d barely locked his front door when he pressed me against the wall. His body felt warm and ready next to mine. I’d resisted the urge to give in so many times already, but now I just let go. I needed to know the outcome of submitting to Arys’s pull instead of fighting.
He allowed me no time to take in my surroundings. At his aggressive touch, my wolf leapt to meet him and a wave of adrenaline crashed through me. As his lips touched mine, our powers collided. Energy rushed around us, white noise that grew by the second. His soft tongue sought mine, and I knew that his need was as great as my own.
Arys tangled one hand in my hair, tugging urgently at my clothing with the other. His touch was possessive and rough. I gasped when he caressed my bare skin, stroking a bold path down my abdomen.
“Arys wait,” I breathed. My lips fought to form the word. I wanted to move further into the house, away from the entryway. I had yet to take my shoes off.
“I know you want me, Alexa. I can feel your wolf calling to me.” He buried his face in my hair, and I felt fangs graze the sensitive skin along the side of my neck.
I shoved him off me and kicked my chunky wedge heels off. “Let’s go inside.”
He stared at me like a hormone-fueled teenager who couldn’t understand the word no.
Even as I sauntered into the heart of the house, the power tried to persuade me to reconnect the broken touch. I didn’t get very far before Arys pulled me back into his arms. A gentle breeze of electricity stirred around us as I lost myself in him. The energy built with each touch and encouraged the next.
In the back of my mind, I wondered what exactly it was that we were conjuring up. Maybe we should stop. I made to pull away, but Arys kissed me. The passion sent a fire racing through my soul. I wanted to take him, right there in the living room. Instead, he led me to the bedroom.
The king size bed was in the middle of the room. With its lavish, fluffy pillows and deep comforter, Arys’s bed looked like a marshmallow just waiting for me to dive in. I was disappointed when he steered me away, but desire and instinct drove me. I focused solely on the vampire that made my blood boil. I needed him to put out the fire that we’d ignited.
Engulfed in passion, I stripped off my own clothes. His hands caressed every piece of skin that I revealed. I couldn’t recall if he’d rid himself of his clothing or if I had done it in my frenzy. I had no semblance of rational thought left at the forefront of my brain.
With dark, potent need, I clung to Arys. He picked me up and slammed me against the wall with a satisfying bang. Braced against the wall, I growled with hunger, ready for him.
As Arys slid deep inside me, a wave of power crashed over us. With our bodies joined, the power seemed to weld us together in our union. It was like that last puzzle piece finding its place.
I flashed back to Lena’s battery metaphor, and a glimmer of fear crept in, but it was too late. I was in his mind, just as he was in mine. Images flashed through my brain like a strobe light. Arys’s memories flooded me with too much information. I wished to close my eyes against the onslaught, but it ran deeper than vision.
I saw blood and pain in his memory, much that he’d taken and more that he’d given. And heartbreak. I was intrigued by the heartbreak. I’d never looked at him that way, like someone who had feelings beyond blood thirst. I had only seen the vampire, not the man.
I experienced the sensation of what he felt when he killed, the ecstasy that he felt each and every time. I saw Arys walk away from a kill with renewal and a grin, but I also saw the blood tears and the regret. The shame that he’d once again fallen into the trap of temptation.
Sweat dripped down the side of my face, and my hair was damp with it. I could feel him in my mind. I couldn’t have shut him out if I had tried. Despite all of it, he didn’t slow his pace as he thrust into me with a sense of desperation.
My fingertips were sticky with his blood. My claws had bit through his flesh as I held him to me. If it pained him, he gave no sign. I cried out as we spiraled toward climax. Our crescendo of buzzing power neared the breaking point.
I was painfully aware of the overflow of energy. It seeped into the objects in the room, as it sought a place to expend. A clock radio on the nightstand turned itself on at full volume and quickly fizzled out, fried. The ceiling light turned on before exploding, sending thousands of tiny shards onto the carpet. I gave a small yelp as one struck my foot. The lights down the hallway followed suit, and I could hear the TV in the living room turn on full blast and then a loud pop.
“Alexa, can I…?” Arys’s breath was hot against my ear as he whispered my name urgently. His pace quickened, and I felt myself hurtling fast towards that ultimate finish.
When it hit, I climaxed with the greatest intensity that I’d ever experienced. It smashed into me with the heaviest metaphysical weight that I’d encountered during a physical act. The strangest sensation accompanied it, something that hurt deep inside my mind as it stripped away any barrier left between the vampire and I.
I heard the howl that tore out of my throat but didn’t identify it as me. In the same breath, Arys sank his fangs deep into that soft hollow above my collarbone. I arched my back, and as the howl died out, it turned to cries of sheer joy. A sound low in his throat echoed me as he sucked and licked at the bloody wound. It hurt so badly but it felt so good.
I wrapped my legs tightly around him as he carried me to the fluffy bed, careful to check for glass before setting me down.
Everything in Arys’s house that had run on power of any kind had been blown far past capacity. We had completely lost control. The disastrous potential of that much power alarmed me.
With our nagging metaphysical energy spent, we were left with the hum of residual power in the room and the continued sexual enticement of the moon, which I gladly gave into. Arys was more than happy to quench that thirst as well. We remained entangled in one another until just before dawn, when f
inally we lay exhausted.
I lay there amidst the down blankets and the satin sheets, breathless. My mind scrambled to make sense of everything that I’d seen and felt. I had been unprepared for the experience. A complete bearing of souls was not what I’d had in mind. Arys broke the silence first.
“That was a trip.” He gave my hand a squeeze.
I lay, collapsed on the bed beside him, staring up at the ceiling. The blood still roared through my ears, and I shook slightly, whether from a chill or from aftershocks, I wasn’t sure.
“Really Arys, what the hell was that? That was so far from normal.”
“Why, thank you. You were damn incredible yourself.” He laughed, and I gave his arm a halfhearted slap. With all that had just taken place, I was surprised that the atmosphere was so comfortable.
I knew the things that Arys had seen inside my mind. He knew my secrets, my hopes and fears. I said a silent prayer that I could trust him with that.
“Seriously though, did you know it would be like that? A complete sharing. I can’t imagine how that could happen.” I was insistent despite the fangs that now nipped playfully at my throat. When he bit at my breasts, I pushed him back to force him to reply to me, despite the tingle that grew low inside me again.
“No. I never would have guessed it would be something that I couldn’t block. When our powers joined, it tore away any mental barriers between us. I’m not sure I can say I would have done it had I known we would share everything.” He pushed my hands down and pinned them against the bed. “But now that it’s too late, we might as well make the most of it.”
Arys’s lips made their way to one of my breasts. His tongue traced circles around my nipple as he chuckled wickedly. His eyes met mine, and he asked, “Can I taste you again?”
The fact that he wanted permission to bite me spoke volumes in terms of respect. I didn’t need to answer, though, as I played with his feather soft black hair. Enough had passed between us that words didn’t seem important.
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